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So I've been compiling Aikido techniques for awhile now. Today I was going through morote dori attacks, and it just hit me that there is no morote dori in Budo Renshuu. Then I looked at "Budo" and the Noma Dojo photos (the one's I have access to) and I didn't find any morote dori there either. I know Saito Sensei says that morote dori kokyu nage (ho) is a corner stone to Aikido training, but I haven't found any print versions of Ueshiba dealing with a morote dori attack.

In Budo Renshuu, the techniques listed for "te" are:
Te, katate- wich are all one handed "katate" grabs
Kokyu ryote- which is a ryote dori- both hands grabbed
Mune to te- which is a chest and hand grab
Tekubi- which are all ushiro ryote or both hands grabbed from behind.

In the other works I sited, I also don't see a reference to "katate dori ryo mochi" or "ryote moch". It does however seem that all of the major devisions of Aikido have a "two on one" type grab, even if they don't call them "morote dori". I just haven't seen Ueshiba doing it, although I'd guess he did, because all of his major students do. I'm just wondering when and where it came from.

Hey, good looking! I've seen a few pictures, where he is demonstrating kokyu, and he he has his attackers holding with two hands, which is what this looks like here. I really wonder want Ueshiba's daily lessons looked like and at what point a "two on one" type grab became common place, and why that happened.

Does anyone know if a two on one type grab is part of the Shin'ei taido syllabus?

Saito Sensei always made the point that uke's holding / grabbing techniques were all based on controlling nage; not letting nage be able to use the hand / hands to launch an atemi against the attacker. When holding kata dori uke should be able to block a punch from nage (from either hand). Morote dori (also called Ryote mochi) was shown as a technique to control nage - uke should be using the two-handed grip to control nage's elbow and thereby keeping nage "at bay." Sensei also sometimes explained that the original Morote Dori called for uke to start by striking ("calling out") nage's hand by way of extending tegatana towards nage's face, starting from the position of the leading hand placed down by the forward hip and leading straight up the centerline to nage's face. This is, by the way, the kihon form that is taught in the Iwama lineage for Shomen Uchi ( in this case it is nage that initiates the "from below to above / towards the face" tegatana / atemi). Sensei would use the Kuden "Aite no ki wo yobidasu" - to call out the opponent's ki.

But I digress :-)
Morote dori was taught very often in Iwama by Saito Sensei, as well as at many of his seminars, always with the focus being on using the hold to control nage - using the slight twist / turn of nage's arm to lock the elbow. We were taught to call out the Morote Dori grip by extending our forearm towards uke with the little finger towards uke (our thumb towards ourself), thereby setting up the proper control grip for uke.

In regard to O-Sensei's use of Morote dori - I would have to say that Saito Sensei would not put as much emphasis on this holding technique as he did unless O-Sensei also taught it extensively.

In regard to O-Sensei's use of Morote dori - I would have to say that Saito Sensei would not put as much emphasis on this holding technique as he did unless O-Sensei also taught it extensively.

My feelings are the same as yours. I believe Saito Sensei tried with great effort to show Aikido the way he learned it from Ueshiba in Iwama. From what has been recorded of Ueshiba's work before the Iwama years would suggest that earlier in his career, he didn't do much (if any) two to one hand holding attacks. I wonder why this is?

To me, being from the Iwama lineage, I think of Morote Dori as a very prominent attack. I was shocked to see that Ueshiba didn't emphasize it in his early work. Makes me curious.

Might it be worthwhile seeing what the Daito Ryu books have to say on the subject?
I'm currently reading Tasuo Kimura's Discovering Aiki, and a fair number of the techniques shown (admittedly, usually with multiple attackers) use morote dori.

Warning: Do not bend, fold or otherwise abuse... until we get to the dojo..

It predates Iwama by a short time, although he would've been 52 in this vido so I don't know if that's early enough.
If I had to argue with myself I might suggest that his constant motion during the set-ups and grabs does make dicerning the intended attacks a bit difficult, I see some two hand grabs that may have been ushiro attacks that Ueshiba turned into something else and such. Also alot of throws are started with his arm extended latterally, and that's certainly not kihon.

However, at 5:37, except that he moves back away from uke instead of dirictly adjacent, his throw is almost exactly how I have been taught to do one variation of morote-dori kokyunage in the Shingu lineage (Hikitsuchi > Mary Heiny > My teacher).

There are also attacks from two uke's in this video. As far as what was heavily emphisized in his earlier teaching: my lightly educated imput is that I have seen some evidence in recent years that implies his techniques as having come almost exclusively from Daito Ryu. But I don't think anyone has implied too much that he wasn't making stuff up or eccentricly demonstrating techniques whithout putting much emphasis on any details of them, this was a common reflection and sometimes complaint of his students, no?

However, at 5:37, except that he moves back away from uke instead of dirictly adjacent, his throw is almost exactly how I have been taught to do one variation of morote-dori kokyunage in the Shingu lineage (Hikitsuchi > Mary Heiny > My teacher).

I would agree! That is a classic example of morote dori kokyu nage!

It is hard when comparing Daito ryu and Aikido syllabus, because as time has gone on, much is shared between the two. With out a historic written account of the techniques it would be hard to say for certain that they didn't both start showing the appearance of morote dori at the same time. But it is a good idea, what is the oldest written account of Daito ryu? That might at least give us some ideas about a time.

I previously had a similar question about irimi/tenkan. Apparently Ueshiba didn't teach it the way we commonly learn it today: 2 irimi then 2 tenkan. (Correct me if I'm wrong though). This was divised by Kishomaru, his son, so I heard. If you look at Yoshinkan it is not done that way either. Likewise the kata in the Tomiki style. Nor in the Kyushin Aikido style as found in the UK (Kenshiro Abe). Iwama do it though. All interesting stuff ... is it not? Makes you wonder why we do what we do without question.

Most of the footage we have of O-Sensei is from demonstrations. Saito Sensei told us that O-Sensei taught quite differently in comparison to what he showed at demonstrations. There is some footage of O-Sensei actually teaching students ( I don't remember the DVD it is on, but it is one of the Aikido Journal clips). Here you see O-Sensei doing a series of suwari waza techniques, very systematically. By the way: you see him leading out with shomen uchi - calling the uke's tegatana forth to use the arm for a technique. There is one time when the uke strikes first, and O-Sensei slaps his hand away, and then starts the technique again where he himself leads in.

But I digress :-) Saito Sensei often said that O-Sensei taught methodically in Iwama. I think that what we see on the footage from demonstrations is what O-Sensei felt would represent Aikido best for this purpose. Saito Sensei said that O-Sensei would often take one attack and then show a series of techniques against this attack. Or take one technique and show it against many different attacks.

So to me it makes sense that O-Sensei would teach techniques from, for instance, Morote dori - a grip, by the way, that is a very strong control against nage - but would not necessarily use it in his demonstrations.

Funny how things happen. Someone just posted this on facebook. (you'll need to understand japanese though) The English given on facebook was about how O'Sensei taught morote dori and what he said about it.

Funny how things happen. Someone just posted this on facebook. (you'll need to understand japanese though) The English given on facebook was about how O'Sensei taught morote dori and what he said about it.

The narrator in the above video is not attributing anything he is saying to Morihei Ueshiba nor is he explicitly referencing him during the clip.

Given the importance of morote dori kokyo ho in the teaching of Saito sensei, I find it intriguing, that Endo sensei says in one of his DVDs about the very basics of (his) aikidō that "how our predecessors did this thing called morote-dori-kokyuho, how they did it the basic way - we no longer know."
As far as I understand "predecessors" refers to Takeda Sokaku, Daito ryū etc.

Most of the footage we have of O-Sensei is from demonstrations. Saito Sensei told us that O-Sensei taught quite differently in comparison to what he showed at demonstrations. There is some footage of O-Sensei actually teaching students ( I don't remember the DVD it is on, but it is one of the Aikido Journal clips). Here you see O-Sensei doing a series of suwari waza techniques, very systematically. By the way: you see him leading out with shomen uchi - calling the uke's tegatana forth to use the arm for a technique. There is one time when the uke strikes first, and O-Sensei slaps his hand away, and then starts the technique again where he himself leads in.

I always found these two snippets from from the Aikidojournal production: "Morihei Ueshiba and Aikido - Takemusu aiki" to be the main source of visual input to how O-sensei actually taught aikido techniques. Note, that in the second clip there are material cut out from the video where the student actually practice for a few brief moments the techniques the founder just showed.Then the founder shows another technique two times and off the students get to practice for a couple of seconds.

Mototetori is just the setup for a classic jiu justu technique that locks the elbow and throws you to the ground. You can see this technique in old Hiroshige woodblocks. When done properly, it could be applied to nuetralize a sword draw. It comes from Jiu Jutsu 101. It certainly is not an attack by itself, it is a training tool. But there's no way O-Sensei wasn't doing morotetori... every jiu jutsu school has this attack, as does Daito Ryu.